Delta_Ricochet

by Cristin Harber

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Colin tapped his finger on the edge of the table, worrying about Adelia as the phone rang for the hundredth time. It wasn’t like her to leave him half a dozen phone calls without a voicemail or accompanying text.

  “What’s that look?” Luke brushed behind Colin at Javier’s dining room table and took a seat. They’d been wheels down from a job that’d had them in and out of a hell zone in less than thirteen hours. It would have been easier if they’d been awake for thirty-six because they’d have an excuse to sleep.

  “No look.” Colin fidgeted.

  “His girlfriend isn’t answering.” Javier threw back a shot.

  “Your sister isn’t answering,” Trace jabbed.

  Marlena rounded the table and flicked her husband on the back of the head. “What are you? Two?”

  Trace locked an arm around her waist, and she easily fell into his lap and tossed a bag of chips on the table. “Maybe.”

  “They’re all children.” Sophia placed a platter in the center of the table and flicked Javier’s hand away as he reached for it. “Macho warriors to the world, begging to be pampered at home.”

  “You know it.” Javier snagged her hand and pulled her into the chair next to him. “Can we eat now?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re not animals.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Luke snagged a handful of cold cuts off the platter.

  Colin watched his teammates and their wives banter. Nothing was unusual. Not everyone was here. Maddy and Sarah couldn’t swing by, and Brock had gone home to be with his family. Victoria and Ryder were in Iowa.

  Adelia was in Iowa… And she wasn’t picking up her damn phone.

  The bag of chips smacked the side of his head. “What the—”

  “Eat.” Luke laughed. “Then call your girl.”

  “Again,” Javier added.

  “Stop picking on him.” Sophia nudged her husband. “I think it’s cute.”

  Colin grinned, picking the bag of chips from the floor and tearing it open. “Yeah, I’m cute.”

  He pretended to kick back. Truth was, something was wrong, and Colin didn’t know what it was, but a no voicemails and a few unanswered calls from a girl who lived life with a motorcycle club wasn’t going to raise much attention.

  ###

  Morning’s first light filtered through Colin’s bedroom window. He’d finally fallen asleep after worrying about Adelia all night. He reached for his phone as if it wouldn’t wake him if she called or messaged. Nothing. His worries grew as he dropped back onto his pillow.

  The cell phone rang almost immediately, and he snagged it again, not recognizing the number with an Iowa area, but that had to be her. “Hello?”

  “Colin?” Concern marred an already smoke-scratched voice.

  “Yeah. Colin here.” He sat upright, pinching the bridge of his nose, and tried to place the distantly familiar voice.

  “You’ve got a problem on your hands. Wake up.”

  His muscles twitched. “Who is this?”

  “Lenora Appleton. Do you know who I am?”

  Yeah, he was well aware of who Lenora Appleton was, and she wasn’t the innocent attorney she’d like most people to believe. The lady was Mayhem’s criminal defense attorney and represented god knew who else. But the fact that she was calling him when he couldn’t get ahold of Adelia made his stomach twist. “What’s wrong?” Colin checked his clock. Just after six. “Where is she?”

  “I was hoping you were going to tell me in bed with you.”

  That didn’t bode well. He swung his legs out of bed and snagged a shirt off the ground. “Why—”

  “Adelia got herself in trouble, and I’m in the awkward position of knowing two partial sides of a story I shouldn’t know shit about.”

  He didn’t care about Lenora’s problems. “What kind of trouble?”

  “The kind where you turn up dead.”

  His stomach bottomed out. “Is she dead?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Colin ran his hand over his face. “Wait—aren’t you her step-mother?” Or something? He had no idea what MC-world lingo was for old ladies and their family.

  “Or something,” Lenora said. “Look, she has a lot on her plate, and calling you was a stretch, but you both seemed cozy at Seven’s wedding.”

  “We are still cozy, and she’s not answering her phone.”

  “She left it at her apartment yesterday.”

  His eyes sank shut. “She’s gone without a phone, is going to turn up dead—and you won’t tell me why?” Colin grabbed pants he’d kicked off before he fell asleep, sliding them on, and booted up his laptop while waiting for Lenora to spit out whatever she’d admit to.

  “She ran into banking problems.”

  His secure email screen appeared on the laptop, but he stopped, not expecting what Lenora had said. “Banking problems?”

  “Yeah, banking problems and this shit is a fucking mess.” Her breath heaved. “I’m not sure I even understand it anymore, and I thought I knew everything.”

  Colin pinched the bridge of his nose, understanding nothing. “Tell me everything.”

  She snorted. “That’s never going to happen, big boy.”

  Jesus. He pulled up an email to Brock and Jared, cc’ing Parker, and started to type. “Some of it, Lenora.”

  I’m on the phone with Lenora Appleton re: Adelia. She’s missing and “in the kind of trouble that you end up dead.” They’re looking for her. It has to do with “banking problems.” I’ll call in when I have more info. Thought you should know. Not sure what they want from me. Unsure if Javier is aware.

  “I’ve said more than I should. If you don’t see that, you’re more clueless than I realized.”

  “Who wants her dead?” Colin asked. That was an easy starting point.

  “Mayhem.”

  What the hell is going on? “Fucking MC.”

  “Can we not have that attitude?” Lenora clucked at him. “Adelia knew what she was getting into.”

  “Banking problems with a motorcycle gang? Yeah, I doubt that.”

  Lenora cackled. “Then you don’t know that girl.”

  “What am I supposed to do? Find her and give her back to you so your club assholes can kill her? I don’t think so.”

  “No, it’s not like that.”

  “Then what’s it like? You’re Mayhem. Remember? You’re part of the problem.”

  “I called you because I cared.”

  “Or you’re trying to track her down,” he snapped.

  “Find her before they do—or before she does something she can’t come back from.”

  Adelia? “Like what!”

  But he’d shouted to himself. The line had gone dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The apple core balanced on Adelia’s knee as she waited at the bus station. Her stomach growled as she considered whether she was hungry enough to eat the hours-old core.

  “Give it time.”

  Adelia snatched what was left of the apple and lurched in her chair. “Lenora?” Immediately, she searched behind her for Tex or anyone. “What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think, sunshine?” She dropped a duffel bag on the ground.

  “You’re here to kill me?”

  “Nah.” She tossed her hand. “I play too many sides of the game to pick one team.”

  Adelia’s eyebrow crept up. “How’d you find me?”

  “You’re not exactly a stealth caper, my friend. Predictable.” She ticked off one finger. “Basic, beginner—”

  “I didn’t have much time for a plan.”

  “You should always have a plan.”

  She snorted. “For my Pops to kill me? Got it.”

  “He didn’t—and he’d never. But a plan to escape? Yeah, you should. I already lit into Tex for missing that life lesson. He taught you how to shoot but not how to get out of town and find yourself some food?” Lenora shook her head. “No amount of Tex hemmi
ng and hawing was going to get him out of that bullshit.”

  She smiled, and man, did Adelia need Lenora’s no-bullshit pep talks. “Would your head explode if I said I missed you?”

  “You’ve been gone less than two days? I raised you tougher than that.”

  Adelia squared her shoulders. “I’m not a wilting wall flower over here.”

  “Sure thing, buttercup. You made it two towns over to a bus depot, looking like you could eat your boot.”

  “Like I’d give up these beauties.” Adelia rolled her eyes. “But tell me you’ve got something? I’m dying.”

  “Something better than an apple core,” Lenora mumbled as she pulled up the flap on her leather shoulder bag and pulled out a wrapped bag from the Perky Cup.

  “Oh, God, you are a good woman. Maybe one-day, Tex’ll make an honest woman out of you.”

  “Ha, says the daughter he thought about killing.”

  “But didn’t.”

  “We both know he wouldn’t do that.”

  “Do we?” Adelia snagged the paper bag and tore it open.

  “I know everything.”

  She took a too-large bite of a brown-sugar-covered bagel. “This is to die for.”

  “Seems about right.”

  “Shut up,” Adelia muttered with a mouthful of the best the Perky Cup had to offer. If she hadn’t been starving, she would’ve held her cards closer to the chest. Lenora was her stepmother in a way, but Adelia didn’t trust her more than Tex, who’d she’d expected to kill her. “Why are you here if you’re not going to bring my head back in that duffel bag?”

  “Figured you needed a few things.”

  She swallowed the bagel. “That’d be nice.” She took another bite.

  “Maybe some cash for food.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Adelia agreed around another mouthful, saying after a long moment, “Don’t think I couldn’t pull this off without you.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But it’d have been nice to have a few minutes to think.”

  “Is that what you were doing here?”

  “Yup.”

  “What’d you come up with so far?”

  “Well.” She eyeballed the old apple core. “Get a hold of someone in our network random and far enough away that no one would think to check.” Her shoulder popped. “I was still working on it and didn’t exactly have all the resources I wanted.”

  “Like a phone.”

  Adelia nodded.

  “I saw you called Colin several times before you bailed.”

  “Err, yeah.” Not only hadn’t she expected to hear his name, but she hadn’t expected to be under the full scrutiny of Lenora’s all-knowing, mind-reading stare when she did. “Why?”

  “I had a chat with him too.”

  “Lenora!” Her cheeks flushed. “What? Why!”

  “I wanted to know if you were with your boyfriend.”

  “I didn’t say he was my…” She flipped her hand over. “What did you say to him?” And what did he say?

  Lenora leaned back, and a small sigh escaped before the corners of her lips turned. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “What are you talking about?” They didn’t have the type of mother-daughter relationship that included a chat about boys, unless it was who could ride a Hog, who was worthy of Mayhem, and who Tex might kill one day. They’d never had a heart to heart and weren’t about to start with Colin.

  “Falling for a law man.”

  “He’s not a law man! What are you talking about?”

  “Carries a gun.” Lenora winked.

  “Tex carries a gun.” Adelia rolled her eyes. “And trust me, there’s no badge involved with those guys.”

  “I’ve dealt with them enough to know they like rules.”

  “Mayhem likes rules.”

  “We like a code.”

  Adelia wouldn’t disagree with that and bit into the bagel again.

  “He’s worried about you,” Lenora added. “I could hear it in his voice.”

  That sliced through Adelia’s chest. She didn’t want to expose Colin to her world any more than she already had. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure what he’d think about the choices she’d made over the last few years. Most people would tell her to call the cops. Most people would be wrong.

  Or maybe Delta would take care of the problem on their own. A wish that he could swoop in, put his gun to good use, and rid the world of human traffickers made her hopeful that he’d not only understand, he’d want to help.

  But no, they had rules, and Colin had upper management written all over him. Adelia could pinpoint distinct types of people, and he had places to go and teams to lead. Colin didn’t need her burden or baggage.

  “He’s sweet and takes on too much responsibility.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He doesn’t need to be mixed up in my business.”

  Lenora slowly shook her head. “Bet he’d disagree, but it’s not my place to say.”

  “What is then?”

  “I have more for you than what’s in that bag.”

  “A bus ticket to Florida?” Adelia teased quietly.

  “How about a trip to the East Coast?”

  “And go where? New York?” That sounded like an urban nightmare. “A million people would give me coverage, but I wouldn’t last long.”

  Lenora snorted. “Why’s that?”

  “Sometimes I’m not sure I like people, and that’s a whole lot of people.”

  “You like people too much, and that’s a city full of people who don’t talk to each other. You’d be fine, but we’re not going there.”

  “Then where are we doing?”

  “The city with the worst port security and a history of fantastic profits for Mayhem.”

  “Baltimore?”

  “You’ve got it, kid.”

  “Why?”

  “Mayhem had a big order come through the other night. That’s why they were celebrating. Skull jamming. Food, drinks, the babes, the works.”

  “It was a little more than normal,” Adelia agreed.

  “Your north-east guy came through again too.”

  “Source of all my troubles.” She finished off her bagel and swiped a napkin from the wax paper. “What’s your point?”

  “I don’t know why I didn’t notice this before. It took Silvio mentioning it.”

  “Silvio?” Adelia repeated the name of the freight buyer Mayhem worked with to move gun shipments into the country from their overseas sellers. She only knew about him from overhearing conversations she wasn’t supposed to listen to over the years. “What about him?”

  “He’s got family tied up in legal problems right now, and their primary concern is protecting their personal client list. Apparently, that’s more important than their own freedom.”

  “They want you to be their lawyer?”

  Lenora nodded.

  “You’re always good to help out.” Adelia wondered how that would affect Mayhem’s income but realized it didn’t matter anymore because her days of saving women were done. “I don’t know much about them.”

  Lenora repositioned her purse and scooted closer. “Silvio knows every carrier and open cargo hold. He could find Mayhem space to get shipments on or off a boat with less time and paperwork than anyone. The guy is trusted. He’s sincere. And he’s also screwed up.”

  “He has?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Um, well.” Adelia rarely saw Lenora without a solid answer to everything. “What are you going to do?”

  “Convince Silvio, as his, his family’s, and Mayhem’s attorney, that he needs to tell me if he double sold cargo before.”

  That sounded all kinds of unethical, but Adelia had nowhere to stand on certain ethics. “What does that mean?”

  “If he sold us a container ship, but we didn’t use the entire space, he might sell the space again to someone else who would use our container, not knowing it’s ours.”

&nb
sp; Adelia pursed her lips. “Sounds sleazy.”

  Lenora didn’t react—and she always reacted.

  “What am I missing?”

  The hollows of Lenora’s cheeks looked sunken in. “Think about it like this…” She reached into her purse, tapped out a cigarette, and lit it, taking a long draw, and flicked the ash before she needed to. That was something Adelia only saw her do when she was preoccupied with too much at once. “Silvio would know if there was a way to handle the marine logistics. It could be an effective way to move all types of merchandise.”

  “People? No. There’s so much risk.”

  Lenora grimaced. “Not really.”

  “Really?” Adelia didn’t want to hear that the risk wasn’t that high.

  “Like Mayhem cargo. We expect a percentage lost, but the return on the investment is worth the cost of any loss.”

  Adelia’s stomach churned. She’d long ago stopped with her most logical argument of ‘but they’re people’ and muttered, “They should care about the risk.”

  “That’s the question you are in a very good place to ask,” Lenora said.

  She inched back. “I don’t understand.”

  Lenora leaned closer. “Who does Silvio know that few ever learn about?” Adelia bit her lip, not sure where Lenora was going. “Everyone.”

  “Exactly. Think more specifically.”

  She clacked her teeth, mapping out who Silvio would know. Buyers and sellers. The names and networks that the most notorious would die to get their hands on— “Oh…” Adelia whispered reverently. “The monster at the top of the supply chain.”

  Lenora nodded.

  Adelia’s blood raced. She never bothered with the middlemen because the hierarchy was more important. “If we find out, we can go monster hunting ourselves.”

  Again, Lenora nodded, holding her gaze. “If Silvio’s family is trying to protect their clients, and one of them is the largest trafficker in the world, we may find a sole source to the biggest importer in the country.”

  Between the bagel quelling her hunger and Lenora gifting her this information, Adelia felt more alive than she had in days. “We’re going to Baltimore.”

  “There’s a one-way to Baltimore-Washington International that we can make if you want to blow this place.” Lenora stood up. “Or there’s cash, clothes, and granola bars in that bag. A burner phone and—”